The smart home industry cluster of Foshan Hi-tech Zone was approved as a national pilot innovative industry cluster, according to the Torch Center of the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST).

The center released the list of 2021 pilot innovative industry clusters on Aug 9, as its efforts in implementing the guidelines of propelling the high-quality development of innovative industry clusters. The assessment work started in February 2021, with 43 clusters appearing on the final list for this year.

Foshan Hi-tech Zone's smart home industry cluster, and three other clusters from South China's Guangdong province, was on the list.

After decades of development, Foshan has become one of the most clustered locations for home industries, such as home appliances, furniture and ceramic building materials, and hosts well-known brands.

In recent years, with continuous technological innovation, investment in research and development and availing to the digital economy, Foshan's home industry has formed a smart home industry cluster featuring rapidly developing subdivided fields, leading technology and huge market potential.

A group of emerging players, such as BEAR Electric Appliances, VIOMI, LINSY, and HUTLON have been derived from the zone, where an innovative industry cluster with home appliances, sanitary ceramic-ware and furniture as its mainstay and supplemented with characteristic industries like intelligent lighting, door locks and security monitoring was formed. These industries are further supported by scientific research institutes, industrial internet platforms and smart manufacturing service platforms.

According to statistics, the smart home innovative industry cluster of Foshan Hi-tech Zone achieved a total industrial output value of 133 billion yuan ($20.53 billion) in 2020. There are 479 enterprises in the cluster, 395 of which are high-tech enterprises. It is also home to more than 130 supporting service institutions in areas such as research and development, innovation services, financial services and industrial alliances. Foshan smart home cluster has taken a significant position in the national, even international, smart home industry.

Taking this opportunity of becoming a pilot industry cluster, Foshan Hi-tech Zone is striving to propel the development of the smart home industry towards digitalization and intelligentization. According to the zone's official website, by 2023, it will strive to form a smart home industry with distinctive product features, housing enterprises with prominent scales and leading comprehensive strengths in the domestic market. It also aims to form a national level smart home innovative industry cluster with international influence, so as to contribute to Foshan’s construction of a manufacture innovation center at national level.